RIPON, Wis. - The Ripon women's basketball team continues to live on the edge as they cling to their postseason hopes. The Red Hawks defeated Illinois College 52-47 in overtime Saturday afternoon to pull within one game of the fourth and final Midwest Conference Tournament spot with two games left in the regular season. Ripon scored 17 points off 22 Illinois College turnovers, while committing just 15 miscues themselves.

The game was close in the first few minutes until Illinois College's Jill Friedrich connected on a 3-pointer to give the Lady Blues a seven-point lead with five and a half minutes left in the opening quarter. Illinois College (10-11, 7-9 MWC) led by six entering the second quarter, but that lead was cut to one in the final minute before halftime on a jumper by Maggie Oimoen.

Ripon (12-9, 8-8 MWC) used a 6-2 run in the opening minutes of the third quarter to take their first lead of the day, but Illinois College battled back to take a one-point advantage into the fourth quarter. The Lady Blues added to that lead early in that period, scoring the first four points to take a five-point lead with seven minutes left in regulation. They would hold that lead until the final minute when McKenzie Banasik tied the score at 42 with 21 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. In that extra period, Ripon scored six of the first eight points, taking a four-point lead on an Oimoen basket with under three minutes to play. Illinois College managed to cut that lead to two with 20 seconds left, but Ripon connected on three of their four free throws in the final seconds to secure the victory.

Oimoen led the Red Hawks with nine points and nine rebounds, while Jonalee Elliott, Megan Jensen and Maddie Koster each scored eight points. Koster also recorded five steals, while Elliott and Emma McDonald each blocked three shots. Elliott, who has already broken Ripon's school record for blocks in a single season now has 35 on the year and moved into third place in school history for career blocks with 61. Nicole Herkert led the Red Hawks in rebounding against the Lady Blues with 10 boards.

Illinois College was led by Friedrich's 13 points and eight rebounds, while Hanna Bergkoetter finished with 10 points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.

Ripon will try to keep their momentum going on Wednesday when they'll visit Beloit College. That game will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Beloit, Wis. and can be seen live at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.